Links du jour: Hill Country French, the Ramsay chronicles

*Interesting piece from the Dallas Morning News about French-trained chef Laurel Waters, who has opened a restaurant–the Laurel Tree–in the sleepy Hill Country hamlet of Utopia, her hometown. The catch: it’s only open on Saturdays, and it’s strictly BYOB. Sweet pepper stuffed with venison, anyone? [Dallas Morning News]

*Some observers predict we’re going to see lots more “Bennigan’s closes its doors”-type stories in the coming months, thanks to soaring energy and food costs. Here’s the view from Chicago, one of the chain’s big markets. [Chicago Tribune]

*And now, our regularly scheduled updates on the publicity machine that is chef Gordon Ramsay. He is catching holy heck for netting and cooking a puffin on one of his many, many TV shows. Bonus: the puffin bit Ramsay’s face before the chef ate its raw heart. [The Telegraph]

*Yet another bonus: Ramsay slipped during his puffin-hunting exploits in Iceland and fell off a cliff into the freezing water, where he almost drowned. [ecorazzi]

*I’m half-Swedish with some Norwegian relatives, so I was interested to read that young Swedish waitstaff are saving the Norwegian restaurants industry’s bacon these days. Something about a “stronger work ethic”? Insert Garrison Keillor-ish joke here. [Aftenposten]